Animal Husbandry

Animal husbandry is the forming or management of animal livestock which includes various aspects such as animal’s shelter, feeding, breeding, health and disease control.

Animal breeding
A group of animals related by descent and similar in most characters like general appearance, features, size, configuration, etc. Is called ‘breed’. Animal breeding Is producing improved breeds of domesticated animals by improving their genotypes through selective mating.
The main objectives of animal breeding are :(i) improved growth rate, (ii) increased production and superior quality of milk, meat, egg, wool, etc., (iii) increased resistance to various diseases, (Iv) increased productive life, and(v) increased reproduction rate. etc.

Fisheries• Fishery is a kind of industry which is concerned with the catching, processing or selling of fish, shellfish (prawns and molluscs) or other aquatic animals such as crabs, lobster, edible oyster, etc.
• Aquaculture is rearing and management of useful aquatic plants and animals like fishes, oysters, mussels, prawns, etc.
• Pisciculture is rearing, catching and management of edible fish.
• There are two main types of fisheries:
(i) Inland fishery is the rearing of fish in freshwater. Important products of inland fisheries are fresh water prawns (Paleoemon Macrobrachium) and fish like Labeo rohito (rohuj) Labeo calbosu (calbasu), Caila caila (catla), Naliaqo aim (malli), Clariosbatrachus (tnagur), Mystus nsgha’a (stnghara).
(ii) Marine fishery deals with the fishery aspects of the sea water or ocean. Some of the important marine fishes are – Hilsa (hilsa). Aluitheronema (salmon), Sardinella (sardine), Hogzodon(bombayduck), Srromoeus(pomphret).
• Blue revolution is concerned with fish production in India.

BeekeepingApiculture or bee keeping is care and management of honey bees, honey bees give us honey, pollen products and wax. They are also good pollinators.
• Apiary is the place ’where bees are cultured and bred to get commercial products.
• Common species of honey bees are Apis dorsota (rock bee), Apis indica (Indian bee). Apis floiea (little bee! and Apis millifera (European bee).
• Honey bees are social insects living in colonies and exhibiting polymorphism and division of labour Three types of individuals (castes) are found in the colony of honey bees (i) Queen is the only fertile female which lays eggs. (Ii) Drones are fertile males which mate with queen. Their number in the colony is not much, (iii) Workers are sterile females and perform various duties of the colony.
• Beehives or nests of honey bees are formed of a secretion from the wax glands of workers. Beehive consists of storage cells, packed with hoisey and pollen, and brood cells, where younq ones are brought up.

Natural breeding
Natural breeding is a type of breeding that occurs naturally among animals. It is of two types:(i) Inbreeding: Inbreeding refers to the mating of more closely related individuals within the same breed for 4 6 generations. Inbreeding increases homozygosity, so it is necessary for evolving a pure line in any animal. Continued inbreeding, usually reduces fertility and even productivity. Ihis condition is called inbreeding depression.(ii) Outbreeding : Outbreeding is the breeding of the unrelated animals which may he between individuals of the same breed but no common ancestors, or between different breeds or different species. So out breeding is of following three types:(a) Outcrossing: Outcrossing Involves mating between unrelated members of the same breed which have no common ancestors on either sides of their pedigree upto 4 – 6 generations It is the best breeding method for animals that are below average in milk production etc.(b) Cross breeding : Cross breeding is the method of breeding superior males of one breed with superior females of another breed. It allows the desirable qualities of two different breeds to be combined. F.g., Hisordale Is a new breed of sheep developed in Punjab by crossing Bikaneri cows and Marino rams.(c) Interspecific hybridisation : Mating between members of two different species produces interspecific hybrids Interspecific hybridisation is performed only when the sterile hybrid is far superior to either of the parents, t.g.. Mule produced from cross between female horse and male donkey.

Artificial Breeding
It is a controlled breeding method which is carried out using artificial insemination and Multiple Ovulation Embryo Transfer Technology(MOET).• Artificial insemination: The semen is collected from the male that Is chosen as a parent and injected into the reproductive tract of the selected female by the breeder. The semen may be used immediately or can be frozen and used at a later date. It can also be transported in a frozen form to where the female is housed Artificial Insemination helps to overcome several problems of normal matings.• MOET: In this method, a cow is administered Hormones with FSH-like activity to induce follicular maturation and super ovulation. Instead of one egg which they normally yield per cycle, they produce 6-8 eggs. The animal is either mated with an elite bull or artificially inseminated. The fertilised eggs in 8-32 cells staqes, are recovered non-surgically and transferred to surrogate mothers. The genetic mother is available for another round of superovulation.

Cattle
Cattle includes cow (adult female), bull (uncastrated adult male), bullock or ox (castrated adult male) and steer (young castrated male) The cattle breeds are classified into three groups:(i) Milch breeds: The cows of these breeds are good milk producers, however, bullocks are of poor quality. F.g.. Gir, Sahival(ii) Drought breeds : The bullocks of these breeds are good for working but cows are poor milk producers. F.g., Malvi(iii) General utility breeds (Dual-purpose breeds): The cows of these breeds are good milk producers and the bullocks are good drought animals. They are intermediate between mikhanddrought breeds E.g,Ongole
• Indian breeds : Gir, Sahiwal, Red Sindhi,Nagori,Hallikarand Kankrej.
• Exotic breeds : Friesian Holstein (Holland), Brown Swiss (Switzerland) and Jersey.They have been hybridized with Indian cows to develop locally acclimatized high performance cattle, e.g.,Karan-Swiss. Sunandini, Jersey-Sindhi, Brown Swiss-Sahiwal, Ayrshire-Sahiwal.